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Citi Philippines CEO Batara Sianturi leads a discussion with participating microentrepreneurs.

We attended a round table with Citi Philippines CEO Batara Sianturi and eight beneficiaries of the Citi Microenterprise Development Center (CMDC). CMDC trains, coaches, and mentors high-potential micro business owners. It has been recognized with a social empowerment award by the Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Program.

In part 1 of the podcast, the microentrepreneurs tell us how they got started in business, and express their fears about the future of their enterprises. We’ll hear from a former overseas worker who had had enough of being separated from her family for long periods, so she set up a business that would keep her at home in the Philippines. Then there’s the former sugar plantation laborer who got a small plot of land in the agrarian reform program and turned it into a thriving plantation.

In part 2, the microentrepreneurs tell us how they overcame personal hardships, what they’ve learned about running their own businesses, and how entrepreneurship has changed their families’ fortunes. A start-up entrepreneur recounts how she switched from a hollow block-making business to something closer to her heart: native Filipino snacks. A widowed mother of three marshaled her inner resources to build a thriving meat processing business and now extends financial assistance to other microentrepreneurs.

Hear their stories in our two-part podcast at the Citi Microenterprise Development Center.

Listen to, download, and subscribe to the Jessica Rules Podcasts.

Ms Celia Rodriguez at the screening of Gerardo de Leon’s Lilet, introduced by the Filipino pop cinema specialist and filmmaker (the epic Search for Weng Weng), Andrew Leavold.

Celia Rodriguez is a contravida in real life, but only to the mediocre and stupid. Listen to or download part 1 of our conversation with Celia Rodriguez at the podcast page.

Our favorite Celia Rodriguez contravida lines:

1. In Lipad, Darna, Lipad!, where Valentina is dining al fresco at the Manila Hotel and she spots the flying Darna and says, “Sino ang babaeng yan na mababa ang lipad?” (For non-Tagalog speakers: “Who is that low-flying woman?” Low-flying as in “tramp”.)

2. From Renly: In Joey Gosiengfiao’s Nights of Serafina, where the lovers have a tryst in a barn strewn with candles for that sexy mood. Unfortunately the hay catches fire (Tanga). The lovers burn to death, naked. In the next scene, they are charcoal in each other’s arms. As they are carried away, Celia says, “Yan ang nararapat sa naglalaro ng apoy.” (“That’s what happens when you play with fire.”)

3. From Louie: In Mario O’Hara’s Bulaklak sa City Jail, when Nora Aunor and Celia enter the prison and Zenaida Amador asks Celia why she’s back.

Zenaida: Ba’t bumalik ka na naman, ano na naman ang kaso mo? (“Why are you back?)
Celia: Ano pa, di pagpuputa, mayroon pa bang iba? (“Whoring, what else?”)

What are your favorite Celia Rodriguez lines?

Celia Rodriguez today, with the director of the Valentina episode of Lipad, Darna, Lipad!, Elwood Perez.

On Sunday afternoon we had drinks and a fascinating chat with our favorite cinematic supervillain Celia Rodriguez, the definitive Valentina, Darna’s snake-haired nemesis. We’d post the podcast right now, but we have to review the recording carefully lest we get sued by the people we talked about haha. Here’s an excerpt.

You will never see Celia Rodriguez in public not looking like a star—she considers it her obligation to the audience. So we had to dress properly in order to hang out with her.

Us: How was Valentina’s snake hair done in the era before digital effects?

Celia Rodriguez: Those snakes are igat, water snakes, delicacies in Bulacan. Elwood said, “I don’t want anything artificial.” I said, “Fine, as long as they don’t bite me.” They’re slimy and smelly, and they don’t thrive anywhere except in water. They put prosthetics on me so that I would look kalbo. Cecile Baun was one of the greatest when it comes to mga ganyan.

I was playing a model from New Delhi, so nakakulot ang pilik-mata ko. Pag nagsasalita ako in Hindu, gumagalaw ang mga igat, napupunta sa pilik-mata ko, pumapasok sa tenga ko. Sabi ni Elwood, “Good, good, don’t say anything. Cut! Perfect!” “Ay *&^%$#@ niyo, alis! Alis!” Isang batya, puro igat.

Our podcast with Celia Rodriguez is coming up midweek.

Venus of Willendorf. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Dr. Agnes Bueno answers your questions on sex and reveals her favorite fictional psychiatrist. (Enjoy the information with some fava beans and a good chianti.)

Listen to our podcast, download it, or get it on iTunes.

Kristen Schaal of The Daily Show on sexy Halloween costumes.

Listen to Part One of our interview with pediatric psychiatrist and human sexuality expert Dr. Agnes Bueno here.

Therese dreaming by Balthus, 1938

Everybody thinks about sex; the question is, how often? Is it possible to think about sex too much? (What is “too much”?) Is it possible to not think about sex at all?

Around the time we declared independence from our parents and moved into a place of our own, we turned on the TV late one night and discovered the woman who has the answers. With her high intelligence and erudition, her direct manner, her colored contact lenses and decolletage, and her absolute refusal to treat sexuality as a subject “not suitable for polite company”, she helped to liberate us from our silly, giggly notions about love and relationships.

On Tuesday we’re doing a podcast with the famed psychiatrist and human sexuality expert, Dr. Agnes Bueno. We’re tackling everything you’ve always wanted to know about sex but didn’t know whom to ask (or were afraid to ask for fear of being judged and condemned as a maniac). So post your questions for Dr. Bueno in Comments, and we’ll try to cram them all into the podcast next week. Don’t be embarrassed; she won’t be.

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The 50 Shades of Grey books being devoid of literary value, does their use as masturbation helpers for the creatively-challenged justify their existence?

Could you recommend some good erotica?

Which fictional couples (from novels, movies and TV) would you say have healthy relationships?

Why do some people insist on staying in abusive relationships? Do they feel they deserve the abuse? Get their kicks from being abused?

Is Freud still relevant to the times?

Is monogamy natural and possible, or are people kidding ourselves?